Over the last 17 years of war in Afghanistan, hundreds of senators and members of Congress have traveled to the conflict zone to thank U.S. troops for their service, meet generals for briefings, and converse with Afghan officials about what is going right and wrong in their country. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, led the latest congressional delegation to Afghanistan this week.

Unfortunately, his bottom-line conclusion is woefully off the mark. Speaking to reporters after his trip, Reed talked about the need for an “enduring [American] counterterrorism presence” in the central Asian country, as if preserving Afghanistan’s stability whatever the cost were the responsibility of the U.S. military. “We can’t assume that anyone other than the U.S. forces and our allied forces can be a successful counterterrorism instrument going forward,” Reed said. “The stakes are too high in terms of the potential of either ISIS-Khorasan or [an] Al-Qaeda element to regroup.”